The weather was fantastic on Sunday and I had the pleasure of walking around the Lincolnshire Wolds with my dog, finding a little stream in the trees and cooking up a ration pack meal and a cup of tea.
There is a video of the trip here for those who'd prefer to watch/listen (It has auto generated subtitles this time!) rather than read:
Here is my route: https://explore.osmaps.com/route/19...=-2.000000&zoom=6.0000&style=Standard&type=2d
The walk took me up from the picturesque village of Donington on Bain, uphill onto the Lindsey Loop and then following the Viking Way back down to Donington on Bain.
The start was a relatively steady uphill yomp. This was quite nice for Lincolnshire, as usually it's washboard flat. The couple of weeks I'd just spent in Devon thankfully meant I was back in the habit of hills, so it was no real struggle. As well as the lush, green countryside I was walking through on the way up, I was treated at the end to some wonderful views of the rolling hills of the Wolds. The breeze was really welcome in the intense sunlight, although it didn't help the audio on my camera very much. But no big deal.
Walking along the top of the hills on the Lindsey Loop led me to meeting a really nice chap who had just been doing some metal detectoring. I asked him if he'd had any good finds today and he showed me a coin he'd found from the late middle ages, he said about 1000 years old and it was worth about a weeks' wages back when it was minted. He said a friend of his had found a silver Viking coin in the area not too long ago as well. How amazing that we can just interact with our history like that - holding a coin that was once held by someone in a medieval village. He was kind enough to give me a brief historical overview of the area and pointed out a few barrows which I suspected I'd be walking alongside on my way back.
Cows and calves in abundance around here, so Finn was kept on his lead for a lot of today's walk. I don't want to be upsetting any calves or mothers, nor do I fancy getting trampled to death by the aforementioned. Finn got a few good swims - once in a nice pond and then again in a stream as we walked our return leg on the Viking Way. We saw some King Alfred's Cakes, plenty of butterflies and birds aplenty.
Along the way we encountered three churches, one of which was the abandoned Biscathorpe St Helen's Church, which has fallen into quite some disrepair internally apparently and is in effect abandoned. A shame. But we did get to see a nice Norman church back in Donington on Bain, which was in beautiful grounds edged on one side with cherry blossom in full bloom.
I did walk past one of the barrows the chap pointed out, so I stopped to have a look at that on the site of an old medieval village.
My hope was to find some wild garlic on today's trip, but no such luck. I did find a fair bit of Garlic Mustard though, so not a complete loss.
I stopped and enjoyed a cup of tea and a British military ration (sweet and sour chicken and rice) which I cooked up on my Bushbox LF twig stove, in a little copse next to a stream. It was very peaceful. Even got to chill out next to a bee that was pottering around trying to find somewhere to make a burrow, which I then got to see her dig.
Got back to Donington on Bain and enjoyed a cold drink at the pub there before heading home. Overall it was a stunning spring day out in our beautiful countryside.
There is a video of the trip here for those who'd prefer to watch/listen (It has auto generated subtitles this time!) rather than read:
Here is my route: https://explore.osmaps.com/route/19...=-2.000000&zoom=6.0000&style=Standard&type=2d
The walk took me up from the picturesque village of Donington on Bain, uphill onto the Lindsey Loop and then following the Viking Way back down to Donington on Bain.
The start was a relatively steady uphill yomp. This was quite nice for Lincolnshire, as usually it's washboard flat. The couple of weeks I'd just spent in Devon thankfully meant I was back in the habit of hills, so it was no real struggle. As well as the lush, green countryside I was walking through on the way up, I was treated at the end to some wonderful views of the rolling hills of the Wolds. The breeze was really welcome in the intense sunlight, although it didn't help the audio on my camera very much. But no big deal.
Walking along the top of the hills on the Lindsey Loop led me to meeting a really nice chap who had just been doing some metal detectoring. I asked him if he'd had any good finds today and he showed me a coin he'd found from the late middle ages, he said about 1000 years old and it was worth about a weeks' wages back when it was minted. He said a friend of his had found a silver Viking coin in the area not too long ago as well. How amazing that we can just interact with our history like that - holding a coin that was once held by someone in a medieval village. He was kind enough to give me a brief historical overview of the area and pointed out a few barrows which I suspected I'd be walking alongside on my way back.
Cows and calves in abundance around here, so Finn was kept on his lead for a lot of today's walk. I don't want to be upsetting any calves or mothers, nor do I fancy getting trampled to death by the aforementioned. Finn got a few good swims - once in a nice pond and then again in a stream as we walked our return leg on the Viking Way. We saw some King Alfred's Cakes, plenty of butterflies and birds aplenty.
Along the way we encountered three churches, one of which was the abandoned Biscathorpe St Helen's Church, which has fallen into quite some disrepair internally apparently and is in effect abandoned. A shame. But we did get to see a nice Norman church back in Donington on Bain, which was in beautiful grounds edged on one side with cherry blossom in full bloom.
I did walk past one of the barrows the chap pointed out, so I stopped to have a look at that on the site of an old medieval village.
My hope was to find some wild garlic on today's trip, but no such luck. I did find a fair bit of Garlic Mustard though, so not a complete loss.
I stopped and enjoyed a cup of tea and a British military ration (sweet and sour chicken and rice) which I cooked up on my Bushbox LF twig stove, in a little copse next to a stream. It was very peaceful. Even got to chill out next to a bee that was pottering around trying to find somewhere to make a burrow, which I then got to see her dig.
Got back to Donington on Bain and enjoyed a cold drink at the pub there before heading home. Overall it was a stunning spring day out in our beautiful countryside.
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